


Hot in Arkansas

by agoodwoman



Series: The First Time [8]
Category: The X-Files
Genre: F/M, MSR, RST, The Rain King, UST, X Files Season 6, season 6
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-13
Updated: 2017-02-16
Packaged: 2018-09-24 02:52:50
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 12,659
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9696482
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/agoodwoman/pseuds/agoodwoman
Summary: Set during Season 6 (post The Rain King), with tension high between Mulder and Scully, they're stuck in a town overnight.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [AllDolledUpPink](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AllDolledUpPink/gifts).



Mulder set their drinks down on the table with a bit too much force and Scully looked at the liquid that sloshed from her glass onto the waxy table top. He sat down across from her with a straw in his teeth like it was a piece of hay and they were just two folks on a farm.

He had spotted a few people during their background checks doing the same thing while they asked about fertilizer orders. He popped a straw of hay in his teeth while they were talking to their last stop on their list, mimicked the farmer’s accent without a comment from their subject and spent the rest of the afternoon calling Scully his missus. She wanted to slap him.

The first time he did that was after their case in Home, Pennsylvania as they sat on the bench and discussed breeding and procreation with undertones of flirtation and want of the other. It was one of many conversations they had that weren’t normal among friends and coworkers but they used these kinds of distractions with a horrific murder in the backdrop to get their minds off what was taking place. He rubbed her back, leered at her a little while she asked him if his genetic muster would stand up to her requirements for any potential donors in the future. Between that and the pen light comment, there was something on the edge of bubbling over.

These last few months working under A.D. Kersh had brought those wanting feelings up again but she wasn’t sure getting together now was a good idea.

She imagined him picking up small colloquialisms and habits from places he visited as a child because he thought they were neat. That was the side effect of living in the same place for an extended period of time. When you move from base to base, you cling to anything from the place you were before as an attempt to stand out from the other kids trying to fit in.

“Double vodka cranberry soda,” he announced as he moved her glass towards her on the table. “ _Two_ limes.”

“Thank you,” she said and wondered if her cheeks were flushed from the alcohol or the warm air in the bar.

Dive bars like this one that Mulder liked to take her to after wrapping a case rarely had proper air conditioning but somehow that never seemed to thin the crowd of people that frequented them.

“It’s hot,” she complained as she tugged on her jacket and Mulder gave her body an obvious once-over she was sure was a side effect of the three drinks he had under his belt. “What?”

His shirt sleeves were rolled up and he was leaning forward on his knees with a look in his eyes that reminded her of men from her youth that liked to suggest bad ideas as a way to shock her. “You might want to take your jacket off, stay a while.”

The comment sounded harmless but the outcome was more skin exposed by her for the appreciation of a man who often times treated her like she was a sexless creature. It was never in a bad way, usually out of respect but then occasionally he would slip in a comment that made her cheeks flush or a laugh bubble up and he would flash her a self-satisfied smile. It was highly frustrating and the behaviour was irregular from what she had witnessed between other male/female partnerships.

Scully looked at the jacket and skirt set she had on and flexed her toes in her nylons in her sensible pumps. She probably stood out like a sore thumb but the shirt she had on underneath was sleeveless. It was a lot of skin for her to expose when she was still technically on duty.

“You might feel better if you take these off,” he suggested as his fingers reached under the table to tickle her knees. Scully pushed his hand away gently and he picked up his glass as though the reach and rebuff was totally casual. “Don’t those make you hot?”

She nodded and took a slow sip of her pink drink.

“If you took them off, no one here would think any less of you for having a normal body that can’t regulate its temperature in sweltering degrees of unregulated air,” he coerced. “Why are you wearing nylons anyway?”

“This skirt isn’t as long as my other ones,” she started.

“ _No one_ appreciates that more than I do.”

“I forgot my dry cleaner shrunk this when I packed it,” she tried to continue.

“And it’s working for you,” he interrupted again with a smile.

“ _Fine_ ,” she said and stood up from the table. She was hot, the air was sticky and her drink wasn’t cooling her down like she hoped. “Don’t eat all my food while I’m gone.”

She was referring to the appetizer order they put in twenty-five minutes and two drinks ago.

“It has to get here first,” Mulder called after her.

Inside the bathroom, with paper towels under her feet and the door locked on the handicapped stall, Scully held onto the railing while she tried to maneuver herself out of her nylons. Eventually, she pulled the skirt up completely around her waist and tugged the pair down while trying to salvage them from getting a tear.

“Oh my god!” a woman’s voice announced as the bathroom door opened. Scully quieted her movements, feeling like a strange interloper on a conversation. “Did you see that guy? What a _fox_!”

“He’s _with_ someone, Mary-Anne,” her companion replied.

“Tall, handsome, green eyes you want looking at you while he’s on top of you!” Mary-Anne described wistfully.

The stall door clanged shut and Scully was forced to listen to them pee for a long period of time. Full bladders from alcohol did that to women.

“I’m gonna say hi,” Mary-Anne said as the toilets flushed.

“In front of his wife?” her companion asked.

“I didn’t see any rings, _Darlene_ ,” Mary-Anne said smugly.

“Okay home wrecker,” Darlene snorted. “But the way he’s looking at her, I don’t think you’ve got much of a chance.”

“That _waifish_ little redhead?” Mary-Anne scoffed. “She dresses like a square even in that tight skirt. I’ve got more moves in my _thumb_ than she does in that little body of hers.”

Scully looked down at her dark blue blazer and skirt and realized she was listening to two local women talk about her and Mulder. It had been years since she heard another woman disparage her for how she dressed. She had been on duty. She was _supposed_ to look like a professional employee of the federal government.

“They definitely aren’t from around here,” Darlene said. “They dress like door to door salesmen.”

Scully stifled a laugh, thinking of the last time she and Mulder had been called that.

“That’s the point. He can be in my bed all night and gone tomorrow,” Mary-Anne said and they both cackled. “I’ll buy whatever he’s selling!”

“Girl, you walked by the table _twice_ and he didn’t notice you or your giant boobs,” Darlene countered. “I think the man isn’t looking even if you’ve got it on display.”

“Speak for yourself!” Mary-Anne replied. “I can see your nipple.”

Darlene cackled and Mary-Anne turned the hand dryer on so their voices were drowned out by the white noise. The door opened and closed again and the bathroom fell silent.

Scully slipped her bare feet back into her pumps and put the nylons inside her purse. She took her suit jacket off and tugged on her skirt again. She was a square but she felt comfortable in that descriptor because these days women were one or the other. It wasn’t a moral judgement since the way a woman dressed didn’t translate to promiscuity. That was a trope she would be happy when it died.

When she returned to the table, she had fresh deodorant and mascara on with her nylons tucked inside her purse and her jacket over her arm.

Mulder was taking a bite of a chicken wing and his chewing slowed as Scully sat down at the table.

After taking a sip of her drink, she looked at his face that could only be categorized as dumbstruck. “What?”

“You wore that to travel home in?” he asked after he swallowed the chicken in his mouth.

Scully looked down at her skirt and cream blouse. It was a little sheer and sleeveless but on an airplane with her blazer on, no one would have noticed. Except their flight was cancelled before they were able to leave Hot Springs, Arkansas so they were stuck in the podunk town another night.

Right now they were planning to stay the night at the motel up the road from the bar Mulder insisted they grab a drink at. He hadn’t said anything prior about her skirt but he also had been sober at the time.

“I wore this to travel home in,” she confirmed.

Mulder shook his head and put the bones from his eaten chicken wing on the side plate provided. “You’re a cruel woman.”

A beat hit the sound system and the song playing flashed Scully back to a time she used to sing this song with Melissa in the car. Three drinks under her belt made her nostalgic while it made Mulder flirty. Maybe it made her a little flirty too.

 _Hey kids, shake it loose together_  
_The_ spotlights _hitting something_  
_That’s been known to change the weather,_  
_We’ll kill the fatted calf tonight_  
_So stick around_

“Mmm!” Mulder said as he took a sip of his amber coloured drink. “Bennie!”

She wasn’t sure why, maybe it was the alcohol or the confirmation she was a square but the rebellious side of Scully wanted to prove she was anything but boring at that moment.

“You’re gonna hear electric music,” Scully sang and Mulder’s face lit up. ”Solid walls of sound!”

Maybe that last drink wasn’t such a brilliant idea.

“Say Candy and Ronnie, have you seen them yet,” Mulder sang with an uneaten chicken wing in his hand. “Uh but they’re so spaced out!”

“B-B-B-Bennie and the Jets,” they sang in unison.

“Oh but they’re weird and they’re wonderful!” Mulder sang and Scully laughed. It was a full cackle and she was feeling too happy to feel embarrassed “Oh Bennie, she’s really keen.”

“She’s got electric boots!” Scully sang.

This last drink was such a bad idea. Rebellious drunk Dana Scully always got herself into bad situations and she had the inked skin on her lower left back to prove it.

“A mohair suit!” Mulder chimed in.

“You know I read it in a magazine!” they sang in unison. “B-B-B-Bennie and the Jets!”

"You're amazing!" Mulder laughed and clapped his hands together in approval. "I didn’t know you could do that.”

“That I knew all the lyrics to an Elton John classic?” she asked with a smile and finished her drink.

A waitress came by with refills for them both and gave Scully a wink before clearing her empty glass.

“I didn’t know you sang in public,” he told her. “You told me last year you couldn’t carry a tune.”

Last year while she sang Three Dog Night in the middle of a Florida forest, she couldn’t carry a tune but sometimes alcohol made her better at certain things.

“Maybe my body needs a lubricant to really get the notes right,” she mumbled.

Mulder almost choked on his drink.

“So are we squares?” she asked and took a sip from the fresh glass.

Mulder wiped his fingers off and set the thin, soiled napkin on the pile of the chicken bones. His finger wiped at the edge of his mouth where a dollop of BBQ sauce had lingered after his last bite. The top two buttons of his charcoal grey shirt were undone and the sleeves had been rolled up to cool his body down. She could see a trickle of sweat run down his neck under the vee of the material where the third button met and she licked her lips instinctively.

Sure, she had just told Sheila Fontaine last week in a high school bathroom that love that blossoms from friendship is some of the best kinds. Of course, she was talking about the feelings she had for Mulder but she didn’t talk about the other feelings burning inside her since before then. It wasn’t easy to work with a man who touched her constantly and often times looked like sex on a stick. It was as though his actions were a social experiment to see how long she could sustain these things without cracking. Without alcohol in her system, she was able to quell the yearning and desires she had for him but this was now her fourth drink and the last two had been doubles. Her resolve could break at any moment. She was only human.

“I think it’s pretty safe to say that we, two federal agents drinking in a dive bar in Hot Springs, Arkansas are probably two of the squarest squares in the joint,” he said. “Not a bad box to be in, considering the company.”

His eyebrows did a suggestive up and down while his eyes flickered down to her breasts and the red flag shot up in her mind.

She wanted him. He wanted her. The line between partner and friend had blurred. However, Mulder was in a ‘do not touch’ category.

One had to ask her why in these instances. Why not drag him back to the motel room, remove the rest of his suit with her teeth and taste the saltiness of the sweat that was probably close to his belly button by now?

She was still mad at him.

What a stupid thing to be holding on to but trust was so engrained in their relationship from early on that she wouldn’t allow herself to give in to the desires she knew they both felt.

“I’ve had worse company,” she muttered and shifted in her seat.

There was a long beat between them and she could see Mulder calculating his next statement.

“How’s the meat?” he asked as he nodded to the plate of dry ribs she ordered.

She picked up a piece between two fingers and tore the meat off with her front teeth. Mulder watched in rapt fascination as she licked the salty remnants from her fingers.

“Good,” she decided. “Did you eat all the broccoli?”

“You’re a _cruel_ woman,” he muttered again as he took a long sip.

It was an amber coloured drink and she was sure he was ordering rye and cokes but now she couldn’t recall from when she went up to the bar the first time to place the order.

It bothered her to an extent because she realized the inside of his mouth was not a taste she could imagine on her tongue. That was the line of thinking that usually got her into situations where she had to take a long bath before bed. She would frantically rub her middle finger across a bundle of nerves with a wash cloth in her mouth as she tried to muffle the sounds of her moans from Mulder’s astute hearing.

He glanced around the bar that was still pretty full with his tumbler at his fingertips, looking exactly like what those women in the bathroom said. He was a fox… It was a terrible first name but an apt description for him.

“Wanna get the cheque and walk back, Scully?” he asked.

There was more in that statement than just ‘I’m tired and not hungry anymore’ and they both knew that.

Scully looked at the food in front of her then up to Mulder’s pink cheeks and gleaming eyes. “I think we should stay another round and finish our food.”

Mulder signalled to the waitress nearby for another one and picked up a drumstick. “ _Cruel_ woman.”

“ _Stop_ calling me that,” she said and dipped the broccoli in the ranch dressing between them. She put the floret in her mouth and licked the dip off her lip. When she swallowed the food in her mouth, she said, “I’m _not_.”

He set down his chicken and looked around them as though he was trying to ascertain if anyone could hear their conversation among the crowd and noise filling the bar. “You think that you’re being _kind_ by licking your lips like that?”

His tone was challenging and if there was one thing about Dana Scully that was certain, she always rose to a challenge.

“I have a counter argument, Mulder,” she began and he waved his hand across his space as though to tell her to go ahead. “Do you think that it’s not _equally_ cruel to watch and touch me the way that you do?”

Mulder looked impressed. Rarely did she call him on his behaviour when it came to the tactile way in which he handled her. He ran his tongue along his cheek and smiled at her.

“I was starting to think you didn’t notice,” he said with a laugh and she laughed too. “I really was.”

“Well, I did notice,” she replied.

Their eyes held for a moment as they considered how to move forward. Mulder, never one to be comfortable in long silences, spoke first. 

“Is this how it finally comes to blows?” he asked thoughtfully. “In a podunk town over drinks after another shitty assignment?”

“Nice pun,” she complimented and he tipped his pretend hat.

“So?” he asked after a beat. She could see in his eyes he was about to lay it out on the table. “Do the looks and touches make you uncomfortable?”

“Not in the way that would get you in trouble with HR,” she muttered and his face lit up. “Shut up.”

Mulder’s face went from full megawatt to muffled joy and she laughed.

“I was gonna kiss you last year,” he said obviously as though she wouldn’t remember. “In my hallway.”

“I was there,” she said with a sigh as she sipped on her water.

It was bland and cold compared to the sugary juice in the short empty tumbler to her left. She frowned at the sight and decided water was too boring when it so hot.

“You were going to _let_ me,” he reminded her.

“I would have let you do more than kiss me,” she replied and looked around for their waitress. “I’m still thirsty.”

Mulder polished off half his water and muffled a belch. “Maybe we shouldn’t drink anymore.”

She picked up a drumstick off the plastic basket in front of him. “Why? Because I admitted to being willing to sleep with you? I would have still quit.”

“ _What_?”

“I would have still quit the FBI, Mulder,” she repeated slowly.

"Why... I...." He shook his head trying to process the information. “Why didn’t you?”

“I got stung by an Africanized honey bee carrying a virus, putting my life in danger again and the men who were responsible have still yet come to justice,” she explained as though she was describing the contents of a cadaver’s stomach. Not happy, not excited but just presenting the facts as they were. “If it hadn’t happened… I would have left and moved on.”

“On to what, Scully?” he asked as though there was nothing else.

Just them, the X-Files, the global conspiracy and proving the existence of little grey men. Her mind felt slightly proud of the fact that she considered them grey, when being inside that spaceship they looked between grey and green. Green-grey… her mind was wandering and Mulder was still waiting for an answer.

“I think… I would have tried to forget we had the last five years and live a life pursuing medicine,” she contemplated.

“I feel drunk but this has been _wildly_ sobering,” he said. “You didn’t want to stay and work with me?”

“Doing background checks has been tedious and horrendous but I’m determined to get back on the X-Files and find some justice,” she said. “If it hadn’t been for that bee and the repercussions, I don’t know if I could have stayed. I’m giving up a lot of things to be in this line of work.”

“A family?” he guessed and she touched her nose.

The waitress came by with another round and Mulder held up his glass.

“To family,” he toasted.

“Mine or yours?” she retorted sardonically.

“ _Ours_ ,” he said and clinked their glasses together.

Scully took a drink and then made a face. “That’s not mean?”

“I wasn’t implying together,” he lied and she raised an eyebrow with the utmost skepticism. “Okay, maybe I was.”

“I know you were,” she stated.

“Is that mean?” he asked.

“I’m barren and your reputation wouldn’t allow for adoption,” she reminded him as though those two things were as casual of a reminder as the printer was out of paper at the copier down the hall. “I learned that already with Emily.”

Alcohol would make her less emotional about some deep wounds and more emotional about minor cuts. If Mulder brought up the parking spot someone snagged from her last week at the grocery store, she would be a wreck.

“Well _besides_ that,” he sidestepped. “A miracle could be in our future.”

It was romantic as hell to mention God at a time like this and she chewed thoughtfully on another dry rib.

“Don’t give up on me just because I’m kind of an ass and you’re obviously angry at me,” he quipped.

“Kind of?” she repeated. She wiped her fingertips with her napkin and tossed it on the pile with the others their waitress had failed to clear. “ _Kind of_?”

“What’s your frustration with me, Scully?” he asked as though it wouldn’t have occurred to him the reasons she was and should be upset. “The main one?”

“You seem to pick and choose what to share with me about your life but feel privy to access to all areas of mine,” she replied. “Sometimes it feels like you still don’t trust me.”

“I do trust you, with everything,” he assured her and she shrugged. Mulder made a defeated face. “That first part sounds like me.”

She took a sip of her drink and set down the tumbler on the table top with precision with the attempt to make minimal noise. “I’m not saying I should have any kind of ownership over you-”

“Why not?” he interrupted and she narrowed her eyes at him with her head tilting forward to ask what he meant. If you knew everything about a person, you could ask a question with just a gesture. “I mean, why don’t you think you have ownership over me? I feel that way about you and the only time I’ve seen you naked have been under life threatening and dire circumstances.”

“Mulder,” she admonished.

He took a sip from his drink and rubbed his top lip along his teeth. “Why? I mean, what?”

“You’re drunk,” she noted. “And you’re just saying things to get into my bed because I told you I would have last summer.”

“I always want to get into your bed, Scully,” he admitted casually as he leaned forward on his elbows. “Maybe not always but I frequently do. I’m not just attempting to test a theory.”

“I won’t quit working at the FBI and let you avoid me if we did,” she told him as though it was a challenge.

“Good,” he approved. “You get to sit behind me knowing all the ways I can make you-”

“Hey guys, I’m just clocking out for the night. Can we settle up?” the waitress interrupted and Scully had never been so grateful for a disruption in conversation.

“Scully, do you have the company card or do I?” he asked as he patted down the front of his dress shirt.

There was nothing underneath but his taught muscled chest and torso and his slight stretching caused the material to gape slightly between the buttons.

“Mulder, we’re not charging this to work,” she told him seriously.

“Why not? We’re still on the clock,” he said. “Sort of.”

“We’re on travel time,” she said and he nodded as to say she proved his point. “ _No_.”

“You know you want to,” he coaxed provocatively and winked at her. “Come on, Scully. _Be bad_.”

Knowing she really didn’t care if it came back and accounting caught her on this overstep, she reached into her purse. Quickly, she pulled out the company card issued in her name. “American Express?”

The girl smiled at them and took the card to run through her debit machine. When she came back with the slip, Scully left her a twenty per cent tip and kept the receipts with the other ones in her purse in a protective baggy.

“You rebel,” he said to her.

“You have no idea,” she said with a laugh. “Sometimes I submit my 3220s and my 1064s at the same time.”

Mulder mock gasped and they both laughed. Menial numbers for menial forms for their menial assignments that they both held a healthy amount of resentment towards.

“You know, on the X-Files, I never felt like I had a case of the Monday’s,” he told her as they walked out into the night air. He stopped walking at the edge of the parking lot where their car would be left overnight since five a piece was too many to drive in a straight line. “The Mondays. I never had them.”

“That’s debatable,” she murmured with a shiver.

“It’s cold,” he noted. “Why is it cooler out here than it was in there? I saw fans blowing in there, Scully. Explain with science why it was hot inside when they had fans.”

“The body heat from patrons of the bar, combined with the hot air expelling through conversation, including the open kitchen creating heat and the fans weren’t circulating quickly enough to do more than-”

Mulder cut her off by pushing her against their car and covering his mouth with hers. He tasted like rum and coke, sweet and spicy with a hint of the BBQ sauce from his wings. It was delicious. His tongue felt slick against hers but not in a bad way.

His body was hard with muscles under his slick cotton shirt and his fingers were pulling at her hair as he devoured every inch of her mouth. His chest pressed against her body and she could feel perspiration sliding down between her breasts. He was overwhelming as much as he was exciting. In all things, Mulder excited as he tired you out. Of course, he was kissing her with the passion of six pent-up years. She hoped he felt the same about her as she pushed her tongue past his teeth and back.

Her hands that had been idle at her sides clutched onto his jacket before sliding up his tie to hold him in place. One hand moved up to grasp the short hair at the base of his neck and she hummed in approval when he spread his legs to level their bodies. He was hard everywhere including the impressive member pressing into her belly. The slickness between her legs was now from excitement from a passionate kiss rather than cooking inside a wool suit.

He ground himself against her and she grunted. Mulder broke the kiss to look into her eyes for a moment before capturing her lips again. Kiss after kiss, they continued to build their desires while his hands moved from holding her face to down her body. His pinky fingers grazed her breasts and she felt her nipples grow hard. His thumbs pushed down her torso to grip her hips almost mercilessly. Her hips thrust against his and he groaned as he broke the kiss. Scully panted against his chest as he pulled his feet together to stand somewhat upright.

“ _Fuck_ ,” he lamented.

Scully pushed her hand across her mouth and looked up to his eyes that were overrun with desire. Any common sense or rational thought was not lingering between them right now.

“We should go,” she suggested as she glanced down the highway to their hotel.

Mulder nodded. “Suddenly I feel incredibly sober.”

She handed him the keys. “Then you can drive us back because I don’t.”

As they buckled up in the car and it idled in park, the rental vehicle pushed almost cool air towards her face and she leaned into the AC unit. She took a napkin from the passenger side door and dabbed her neck.

“Could you stop that shit?” he asked as he put the car into reverse. “I have to drive right now.”

Scully sat up and was about to ask what he was referring to but the tenting in his pants and the desire in his eyes gave him away.

Four minutes later they were parked in front of their motel room doors with an awkward air lingering between them.

“Are you going inside?” he asked her.

What she inferred from his question meant he wanted to go to sleep. A hot bath and rolled up washcloth it would be then. She might feel humiliated if she had more sobriety at the moment but she had no sense but to just leave the car.

“Sure,” she said and gathered her jacket and purse from the seat beside her. “Good night, Mulder.”


	2. Chapter 2

  
She felt hot and embarrassed after what just took place at the bar and in the parking lot. She wanted space, time to think and cool her hormones down.

Unfortunately, Mulder was out of the car quickly behind her and at her door as she struggled with the key in the lock.

“That’s not what I meant, Scully,” he said as he followed her inside.

“What did you mean?” she asked as she hung up her jacket and pulled her nylons from her purse. She would need to rinse them before the next wear and she ran the tap on the sink outside the bathroom to wash them out. “I’m not sure how to take that kiss then that moment just now.”

Their adjoining doors were still propped open and Mulder looked into his room for a moment. He closed the door to the outside world then crossed the space to her.

“I don’t want to rush you,” he said as he leaned against the counter. “What are you doing?”

Scully put three pairs of nylons she had worn that week into the sink with a dollop of the hotel shampoo. “I’m washing out my pantyhose.”

“With shampoo?” he asked.

“They don’t have body wash provided and I don’t want to use what I packed,” she said quietly.

“You are enigmatic,” he noted and she laughed. “I knew you did this… I just had no idea.”

When she looked up at him as he watched her push the thin hosiery under the soapy bubbles, she stood on her toes a little and he leaned down to kiss her.

It was soft, sweet and tender as though they were making up for a misunderstanding. Alcohol made you feel a lot of emotions whether they were valid or not.

“I wouldn’t have let you quit the FBI after we went to bed together,” he told her as he pushed his forehead against hers. “I know what I said on the steps of the National Mall. I know I told you to go… but I would have selfishly tried to convince you to stay. I don’t think I could have stayed there without you.”

“I know,” she said and closed her eyes.

She turned off the water and moved away from Mulder to dry her hands off. When she placed the towel on the counter, he was watching her with fascination. It was so strange to be studied so openly but he did that as though she was supposed to not notice his eyes taking in everything she was doing as though it was a precise experiment. She submerged her hands in the water again to pull the nude coloured nylons and with slow, careful precision, she wrung them out before hanging them over the bath towel rack by the shower.

When she returned to the bedroom, Mulder was taking his shoes off as he sat on the edge of her bed. She stepped out of her shoes and walked toward him with the carpet feeling cool under her feet.

Standing between his thighs, she pulled on his chin to force him to look at her. “I’m still mad, Mulder.”

“I’m sorry for that,” he apologized. “I’m sorry I’ve made you mad and not just because I think it’s going to interfere with me getting you to sleep with me.”

She chuffed a laugh. “I don’t want to be angry with you anymore.”

Mulder’s hands were at her waist and he pressed his fingers a little harder into the flesh at the top of her ass. “What can I do to make you less angry, Scully? What do you need?”

She shook her head as if to say she didn’t know.

“You’re not making this any easier,” he admonished her with a slight laugh and she chuckled too. “There’s nothing between Diana and I anymore…”

Scully sighed. “Okay.”

The fact that she wasn’t convinced was evident in her tone.

“Why don’t you believe me?” he asked.

She missed the fun buzzing in her head during their time at the bar. This felt more emotional and serious.

“I _know_ what I saw,” she started then thought better of it.

Exposing herself for inadvertently spotting Mulder and Diana in a private moment hurt to think about but didn’t look good for her either.

“What did you see?” he asked.

Scully stepped back from Mulder and sat down on the bed next to him. “I saw you two… at the hospital…”

His face revealed that he understood what she meant and he nodded slowly. “I see.”

Scully studied his face as he processed what she told him before looking down to study her hands. As a child, she was told that it was telling for her when she felt shame or embarrassment but as an adult, it became a way of her getting herself in check. There was capability and knowledge in those hands - the ability to do so much and it reminded her that she was not the small feeling inside of her but so much more.

“Scully,” he started and they looked up at each other for a beat. “I think when you see someone from your past, the good feelings can resurface as much as the ones that are bad. I don’t know where her alliance lies right now and I don’t like that feeling.”

“I’m not a consolation prize,” she reminded him.

“Do I make you feel that way?” he asked and she could hear the hurt in his voice. The petulant part of her didn’t care if he was hurt but the rest of her did. “That you’re someone I’ve settled for?”

Her chin wavered and she looked down at her fingers as the nails on her thumbs dug into the pads of her middle fingers. Mulder pulled her hand into his lap and she clenched her other fist.

“You’re not someone I would ever consider second in anything,” he tried to assure her and she tried to see the truth in the eyes of a man who fought so hard for it. “I didn’t say that stuff to you in my hallway-”

“I know,” she cut him off.

“You obviously don’t,” he said gently. “I meant what I said. You made me a whole person instead of this shell of a man. This half-life I was leading that didn’t believe in love for myself. Scully, you made me realize I deserved to be loved. That’s not something someone settles for.”

The anger she felt inside that was lingering began to tether and loosen. It was difficult to explain how he could melt her heart one minute while part of her longed for closure. She didn’t know if she would ever have it on this.

“I should have told you about Diana,” he continued. “I guess I hoped she was a part of my past we wouldn’t have to live through like everything else.”

That was fair. Jack and Phoebe made a reappearance in their lives at the beginning of Scully’s assignment to the X-Files that caused both of them to behave a little prickly. For herself, she hadn’t felt romantic feelings toward Mulder but there was a part of her that felt jealous and she wasn’t sure why. It was seeds of romance underlying a foundation of friendship and trust they were trying to build.

“She was a part of the X-Files-” Scully conceded.

“She believed in the paranormal. She had ideas of her own but her dedication was to her career over everything else,” Mulder cut her off. “I’m worried she’s not down there with the best intentions now.”

“If she was a man, no one would doubt her moves and motives,” Scully countered. “I think society often believes women will sacrifice for love and men can sacrifice love for their careers.”

“Society sucks,” Mulder groaned. “ _You_ chose your career over love.”

“When?” she asked leaning away slightly.

“Ethan,” Mulder reminded her. “I heard you two on the phone more than once.”

Scully nodded slowly. “He was… not a fan of me being a gun-toting, handcuff carrying, in-the-field agent. He wanted a woman who would be home every night for dinner.”

“That opinion worked out really well for him,” Mulder scoffed.

Their eyes met and they shared a rueful smile.

“ _Scully_ ,” he started and she could hear the desire in his voice.

Her lips parted slightly as she anticipated his kiss. Slowly, he inched closer and pressed his mouth to hers to pick up where they left off outside the bar. They kissed slowly, softly and with the tenderness of two people who longed for each other. It turned fervent and needy with the history and desire bubbling from inside. Little moans escaped her mouth as he pushed her down onto the mattress and he settled himself on top of her while his tongue slid in and out of her mouth. He was doing everything at once as his lips pressed into hers and his hands started their exploration of her body. The polite stage of their kissing ended and his left hand palmed her right breast. She felt her nipples ache under the cups of her satiny bra and she arched into his touch. Mulder’s evident want for her was pressing into her left hip and she needed to feel him between her thighs soon.

Six years of the back and forth bantering had created a trust and camaraderie. Since he took her head in his hands and moved in to kiss her slowly, she had a readiness in her body for him that was unlike any other before. She felt the swelling and ache in her belly as his hand moved down her torso to pull her top from the waistband of her skirt.

As his fingers slipped under the hem of her shirt and danced up her hot skin, she shuddered. Mulder pulled back from kissing her and he watched her face as his hand moved between her breasts to feel for a front clasp. Scully nodded just slightly as his fingers pinched the clasp together gently and the bra popped open under her shirt.

“I need to see all of you,” he groaned and pulled himself off the bed to begin undressing her.

Out of compliance and eagerness, she sat up to discard her shirt. Mulder pulled her bra off next and his eyes immediately gravitated down to her breasts. He had seen them before during a life or death moment on a spaceship and made no apologies about glancing at her cleavage when it came into his eyeline on occasion. But this was different. This was wanton desire, readiness and willingness to be touched by him and she could see that transition in his eyes seek permission she happily provided.

Before Mulder could reach out to touch her again, she started unbuttoning his shirt. He tackled the bottom buttons and his shirt was tossed to the floor next to hers. The central air unit in the corner was sputtering as it forced more cold air into the room while their bodies combated the passions they were finally letting loose.

She didn’t feel embarrassed or shy. She felt wild and feral.

“ _Fuck_ ,” he groaned and his hand grabbed at the flesh tenting in his pants. “I need… Scully if we’re not going to do anything, you can tell me now but I might have to leave to remain a gentleman.”

Scully’s eyes travelled down his chest and to where he was holding himself through his suit pants. She shook her head and reached for his belt. Mulder made a guttural noise and his eyes watched it rapt fascination as she sat topless on the bed to rid him of his trousers. He stepped out of his shoes and let his pants fall to the floor. She was face to face with his desire for her. For once, the emotional intensity wasn’t urging her to run away.

He stepped back slightly and Scully hooked her fingertips into the waistband of his boxers.

“I used to think it was electric boobs,” Scully admitted as she pulled his underwear down. “When Melissa bought me Goodbye Yellow Brick Road for my birthday, I felt embarrassed I had been singing it wrong for four months.”

“They don’t make sense,” Mulder managed to tell her as he kicked his underwear to the side. “Who sings about people in a magazine and killing a fatted calf?”

“I don’t think the fatted calf is referring to farm animals,” she whispered.

He was standing there naked in front of her with his watch on his wrist and an impressive erection inches away from her face. He was thick around and his cock was extended at a forty-five degree angle from his body. She wanted to giggle at the idea of assessing him in such a fashion and she realized the alcohol she consumed that night was still buzzing through her body.

It didn’t change that she wanted him. As she reached her hand out to feel the weight of his flesh in her hand, he grabbed her wrist to stop her. Their eyes met and Mulder shook his head.

“Take off your skirt, Scully,” he said in a tense voice.

He released her wrist and she carefully undid the clasp at the back, lowering the zipper on her skirt. Mulder knelt before her and she laid back as he pulled her skirt down her legs, kissing the skin on her thighs as it was exposed.

With just her underwear between them, she could feel his desire not to rush her but this wasn’t going to be the slow build that usually happened when she started dating someone. After all they had been through, she didn’t need to delay what they were doing. She didn’t want to take her time with him and decide whether he was worth it. He was more than just a guy she decided to take a chance on.

He rubbed his hands up her right calf to her thigh and repeated the action on her left leg. “You’re so beautiful, Scully.”

Their eyes held for a beat before his eyes took in the skin that was exposed to him in an intimate setting that didn’t ask for help.

“Do you believe me when I tell you that?” he asked her and she shrugged slightly. “I could tell you every day, if that helps.”

He believed it like so many other things and this wasn’t science or fact, it was perception. When she told him that beauty was subjective, he shook his head.

“Beauty,” he began as his fingers tucked under the waistband of her panties at the back. “Is _not_ just subjective. No one looks at the Sistine Chapel and says it’s just okay. No one would say a rose or a peony is just sort of nice.”

“I’m a peony?” she asked as she lifted her bottom slightly to help him pull her underpants down.

She wondered if he could see the moisture on the crotch of the panties and if he would find that encouraging. It was Mulder in front of her and he was a bit of a pervert. He would appreciate proof when it came to anything, especially her desire for him.

“You’re more than that,” he said. “You’re… like a Roman goddess.”

“ _Mulder_ ,” she laughed with embarrassment.

“I mean it. You’re Juno.”

“The Roman goddess of fertility?” she questioned.

“You’re an expression of the very nature of femininity,” he told her as he kissed her knees. “Petite but curvaceous. Lively but strong, regardless of the sexual connections people put on you.”

“Wasn’t she really mean?” Scully asked but she allowed him to kiss her thighs anyway as she ran her fingers through his hair. Even in sex, there was a back and forth of theories and ideas. “I am sure I read a story about her being cruel and savage.”

“Juno was a goddess who made people remember,” Mulder said with a smile on his lips. “The goddess who alerted people.”

“I don’t want to be a goddess,” she said as she scooted toward the middle of the bed.

“You are, though,” he told her as he climbed on top of where she was and kissed her mouth softly. As he settled himself between her thighs, he sighed a little. “You’re the kind of woman people write about.”

Scully shook her head. “It feels like you’re making fun of me.”

Mulder shook his head. “I would never when such delicate parts of us were exposed.”

“Are you talking about your genitals or your feelings?” she asked as she adjusted herself under him. His cock was pressing into the inside of her thigh at her pelvis and it felt utterly fantastic. She shifted her hips again and the length of him brushed against the swollen lips at her sex. “Oh!”

“Well both,” he said after a beat. He reached between them to point his erection towards the mattress so the length of him was aligned with her sex. “You’re wet.”

He said it so amazed as though he hadn’t undressed her previously, made her moan with a few kisses and ground himself against her.

“I’ve had some inspiration to get this way,” she reminded him.

Mulder kissed along her collarbone as his hand covered her breast again. She tried to lean into his mouth as her pelvis pushed up to his cock. He was overwhelming her with sensations and he had yet to penetrate her.

They began moving against one another and just when she thought he might push inside her, his body began to move down the bed.

The man ate sunflower seeds and chewed on pens so his oral fixation shouldn’t be a surprise to her. It was just experiencing the fixation personally wasn’t one she was anticipating tonight.

“Mulder,” she started as his lips reached her belly button.

Mulder looked up her body and the innocence and wonder in his eyes was heartbreaking. “Yeah?”

“I don’t need-”

“I need it,” he told her firmly. “Can you give me what I need?”

Of course, of all the men she went to bed with, he would be the one who needed to taste her like it was his own sex being treated with care. It was almost unfair she had worked alongside him for six years and only speculated this fact about him.

“Scully?” he asked. “Can you?”

“Do you want me to-”

“No,” he cut her off again. “I _need_ this. I don’t need you to do that.”

That confused her but he was already lining his face up to her sex.

“Do you mind if I do this?” he asked as he kissed her inner thighs.

_Who would mind?_

“Some women mind,” Mulder told her and she realized she said that query out loud. “I’ve been told some women don’t like certain oral attentions. Seems silly… considering the outcome.”

“You just denied- ohhhhhh,” Scully’s voice stopped trying to rationalize when Mulder’s tongue lapped up her right labia then her left. “Ohhhhhhhhh.”

Mulder’s tongue moved up and down each swollen lip and then lapped up the centre once before circling her clit. His tongue began moving in strange patterns around her bundle of nerves until she realized he was actually writing the alphabet with his tongue. She thought it was a strange and ridiculous way to get her to come until he reached the letter G and a shot of excitement rushed through her.

“Holy fuck,” she cried as her desire grew and she felt herself getting more swollen with need.

Mulder’s tongue flattened out as he moved up each lip and then smoothed across to connect.

“What the fuck?” she asked but it was rhetorical.

An answer was her release and eventually she would find it as he randomly fucked her with his mouth. As the mounting need to find her extolment arrived, Mulder pushed his middle finger inside her and groaned against her sex.

His mouth pulled away regrettably from her. “You’re so tight, Scully…”

His tone was one of awe and admiration. The trust she felt in him to do this was great but it was more than that. This was everything. They had a partnership where they had to learn how to work together. They had a friendship that grew from the elements of their job and working together. Now what she was experiencing was the rest - what they had denied themselves for too long.

His finger crooked inside her and rubbed along the forward wall of her sex while she began to grind her pelvis into his face. It wasn’t ladylike. It wasn’t delicate or the kind of professional behaviour between two colleagues. This was sex at its purest form.

Mulder groaned again but his tongue was relentless. She could hear herself chanting and urging him with yeses and cries for him not to stop. The pressure inside her was mounting and she felt helpless for her orgasm to wash over her. It was contradictory to the urge to revel in the joy of the sensations filling her. The excitement she had this first time wouldn’t be like any other. They would all be good, overwhelming and wonderful, but this was had a newness they wouldn’t ever get back. After this, they would have more intensity, more history and the knowledge of how their bodies worked together. It would only get better from here.

She wanted him to have that newness and release too.

Suddenly the idea of sinking to her knees and taking the length of what was impressive in her mouth filled her mind. The very thought of his flesh on her own tongue pushed her over the edge and she felt herself come apart completely.

“Oh my god!” she called out as her eyes shot open. “Oh… my God!”

It was fortunate that he was relentless in his pursuits. He wouldn’t stop, he wouldn’t cease his movements. His tongue continued to push against her clit as she ground herself into his face. The strands of hair at the top of his head were wound tightly in her grip. The sound of his hand moving across his own flesh filled her ears and she felt herself swell even more.

“Fuck!” she cried and a rush of fluid escaped her sex. “Fuck!”

Mulder pushed his face against her sex as he rode out the last wave of her orgasm. It was all amazing until she felt painfully sensitive and she pushed her body up the bed and away from him. Her knees bent and locked together as she put a hand over her mouth while she tried to calm down from what was probably one of the most intense orgasms of her life.

Mulder inched up the bed next to her on his side as he used his hand to wipe away the evidence of her orgasm from his chin. “You okay?”

Scully nodded and looked around the room for something. A sign they were still in that moment, that they were untouched by anything back in Washington and most especially that they had closed the door.

  
Mulder looked toward the door where Scully was watching and then down to her face. She saw him lean in and she turned her face toward him as he leaned in for a kiss.

The lingering taste on his tongue was all her and she pulled back from the kiss. She licked at her lower lip and wondered if he could see the thought running through her mind.

“What?” he asked as he wiped the edge of his mouth. “Too much Scully flavour?”

She licked at her bottom lip and shook her head. “I’m not used to tasting that.”

Mulder smiled and got off the bed to open a bottle of water from the mini fridge under the television. The accommodations they stayed in under Kersh’s purview had improved since being moved off the X-Files. Prior to now, rarely did their rooms offer mini fridges let alone complimentary bottles of body wash, shampoo and conditioner. That must be the difference between a two star and a three and a half star motel.

He drank a bit of the water and walked toward the bed, holding the bottle as an offering. His erection was still solidly pointing at her and she struggled to keep her eyes on his face as she took the plastic bottle for a sip.

“You taste amazing, by the way,” he told her and she almost choked on her mouthful of water. “No one ever told you that before?”

Scully fastened the cap back on the water and shook her head. “No…”

Mulder sat down on the bed next to her. “I wouldn’t use a word such as ambrosia because that’s cliche and I’m fairly certain the trash novels in airports use that to describe lady juices.”

“Lady juices?” she repeated and made a sour face. “Mulder.”

“That’s what the book called it,” he told her as though she understood what book and where he would have read it. “The book in the airport when we were laid over in Little Rock.”

Scully shook her head. “You were reading a trashy airport romance novel? Where was I?”

“You were in the bathroom before we got to the car rental place,” Mulder explained as he drew one digit up her thigh. “I mean, the characters were poorly written and the plot was subpar but the sex was interesting.”

“I was gone maybe five minutes,” she pointed out. “How much could you have read?”

The back of is fingers were now brushing up her belly. She watched as his hand stopped just under her breast to move under her arm and up her back.

“Mulder?”

“I’ve been reading that book for a few months,” he confessed with a grin as his hand spread across her back.

“You’re lying,” she stated immediately and he shook his head regretfully. “You’re not?”

“I think we were in Alabama?” he guessed. “You went to get us coffee and I offered to get snacks for the plane you could fit in your purse.”

Scully nodded as she realized what he was referring to. “I came back and you were by the dirty magazines with no snacks.”

“I wasn’t reading a dirty magazine,” he told her as he leaned in to kiss her neck.

“Apparently not,” she commented as she tilted her head away to allow him better access. “Why… um why were you reading it?”

Mulder brushed his lips along her shoulder. “Research.”

“What…” Scully’s voice trailed off. “I mean… what kind of research?”

Mulder’s other hand was now moving up her legs toward the apex of her thighs. “The book was called The Slow Burn.”

A laugh escaped her lips but it was cut off abruptly when two fingers slipped inside of her. It felt foreign and welcomed all at once.

Mulder laid her slowly down on the bed as he pushed all the way inside. “It wasn’t about what I thought it was about.”

“What… oh… did you…”

Mulder’s mouth was tracing patterns across her skin and took a breath from his work on her nerves. “Trick Huntington, Nantucket born and bread, moves to Washington and takes over a position at the Washington Fire Department.”

“That’s not how…” Scully groaned as she tried to collect her thoughts. “It doesn’t work like that.”

“I know, Scully,” Mulder said. “But you have to ignore logic to get into the real plot of sex, mystery and danger. Trick meets Fiona Vitale who works as a paramedic. They have sparks instantly but she’s hesitant to his advances. He has a dark past but hers is possibly darker.”

“Why…” she started.

Her questioning mind put a pin in the idea of what Mulder could possibly want to read a Danielle Steele knock off for. She would ask him later since right now his mouth was kissing along her tendons and his thumb was maneuvering its way across her clit.

The fingers that had been gripping the bedspread, slid up to his face and pulled his mouth to hers. She wanted to be overwhelmed by him again. His fingers worked in and out of her as his thumb brushed across her nerves. Scully wasn’t sure if he was buying time or Mulder was just one of the rare men out there that wouldn’t allow for his own orgasm until she was exhausted. Her mind decided it had to be a bit of both because Mulder was never just one thing.

The kiss broke when Scully turned her head towards Mulder to moan as her next climax approached. She looked up to his face as he watched his hand move in and out of her sex. His cock was pressed against her side and she reached between them to wrap her hand around his hardened flesh to stroke once. Mulder groaned and she looked up to see his eyes close as she gingerly but firmly gripped his dick.

“Scully….” he whispered but it also sounded like a warning. “Don’t….”

Their hands stilled and Mulder looked up to his face.

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

“I am certain that maybe down the road, things like you touching me in this way won’t affect me so greatly but right now I’m a gun waiting to go off,” he confessed. “It’s a hair trigger because it’s you and it’s new.”

Scully tried to fight a smile. “Oh.”

“The last thing I would want to do is get there too soon…” he said sheepishly as he withdrew his hand from her sex.

“Do you need a minute?” she asked as the smile took over her face.

Mulder must have sensed her amusement and suddenly felt apt to a challenge. He was abruptly on his knees between her legs and pulling her roughly by the backs of her calves down the bed. Scully gasped audibly and they shared a smile. Mulder’s eyes were assertive and mischievous but filled with desire.

“I don’t need a minute,” he stated with a grin.

As he took himself in his hand, he lowered himself onto her and brushed the head of cock against her wet folds. It felt better than his hand. New, thicker and she felt herself stiffen in anticipation. The head of his cock pushed inside and met resistance from her sudden anxiety. Above her, Mulder looked from where they were joined at the most intimate place and up to her face.

“Relax,” he urged her and kissed her lips softly. “It’s just me.”

“Maybe it’s because it’s you,” she countered.

He brushed his lips across hers and kissed beside her mouth. “Always with the arguments.”

She chuffed a laugh and another inch of him pushed inside. “Oh!”

“Maybe I’ll tell the four good jokes I know that would make you laugh,” he mused as he looked down at the parts of him that were remaining to penetrate her. “There once was a man from Nantucket-”

“No,” she cut him with off a playful tone but another inch pushed in.

A sigh escaped her lips and Mulder let out a long breath. Her walls relaxed some but the tension was still evident by the fact that Mulder was not yet all the way inside.

“Scully?” he started.

She clenched her chin and half-smiled until she cleared her throat. “Something wrong?”

“No,” he started and laughed sheepishly. “I… I love you.”

She wanted to tell him that he said that before and recently too but she chose to smile instead. He slid in the rest of the way and they groaned in unison.

“Shit,” he lamented.

Scully opened her eyes to see him looking down at her with adoration and a hint of pride. “You’ve said that before.”

He adjusted his hips a little, pulled back and pushed in so he rocked against her. “Shit?”

“That… oh….” her voice trailed off as he repeated the action. “You love me.”

“Maybe I’m hoping to inspire a confession out of you,” he bemused with a smile. “I’m used to not hearing it back, so you don’t have to-”

“I do love you,” she cut him off and his eyes communicated the relief at hearing those four words. “I thought… I thought I had made that clear last year.”

If it was possible to fall in love more with someone while they told you things that broke your heart, it was happening to Scully then. He looked relieved and grateful for her while also longing for more of what they were doing. His evident desire was inside her twitching with her breasts compressed between them and his arms looped under hers.

Mulder pulled his hips back further and thrust into her once, hard. “God you feel good.”

His hips repeated the hard thrust and she whimpered.

“So tight,” he started and thrust again. “You feel so good inside.”

He thrust three more times and she felt the pangs of a lingering orgasm flow over into another one as it began to build. It could take a while but it could happen if everything was going right.

“I can’t believe we’re doing this,” he whispered and pumped his hips twice more. “You feel… fuck you feel so good.”

He was going to coax another orgasm out her body by just his words if he kept that up. It wasn’t just the emotional aspect of their relationship that made this work between them. They had the sex working for them too.

She was thinking of all the times they were there for each other and she knew this was it. There wasn’t anyone else. Who else could understand all they’ve endured and triumphed over?

So much of her past was tangled up in her experiences with Mulder. Her past, her present and the foreseeable future was him and she couldn’t imagine it any other way.

As he pushed his cock deep inside her, she arched her back off the bed. Mulder’s lips found her collarbone and he nipped along the spots that wouldn’t be hidden by any of the shirts she brought with her. He knew exactly what he was doing.

“Touch yourself,” he urged, continuing his rhythm as though he knew the likelihood his orgasm outlasting hers with this friction was minimal. “Touch yourself, Scully. I want to feel you come.”

Thoughts of whether it was too personal to do with Mulder didn’t enter her mind. The man had seen her at her best and worst, even as she tried to cling to a semblance of dignity during her cancer. There was nothing they hadn’t gone through together now. This was the final step of intimacy between them and the primal urge inside her wanted to feel him as she came again.

Scully’s hand moved between them and Mulder pulled his body up so he was back on his haunches with his dick still inside her. He looked down to where their bodies were joined and then slowly up to her face.

“Did you ever think in your life you would see that?” she asked slyly and he shook his head in happy disbelief. “Really?”

“I had hoped…”

Scully’s finger pushed against her bundle of nerves and they both closed their eyes as her walls tightened around him.

“The experience supersedes expectations,” he said carefully.

“It’s pretty fucking amazing,” she agreed.

He laughed. “Pretty fucking amazing is probably more accurate.”

The pad of her middle finger pushed across her nerves again and Mulder looked from her face to what she was doing. Watching him as he watched her was hot and the experience just got that much more intimate and sexy. It was arousing to arouse him as much as it was challenging to challenge him. They were the driving force for each other in all areas. That much was evident as he pushed his hips into hers and the tip of his cock pushed against her cervix.

Mulder’s hands gripped her hips and he rocked against her as she worked herself into a frenzy towards her release. He was watching with the magnetism he devoted to the truth and she felt the intense passion on her in that moment. It was welcomed as a long embrace.

Everything would be different with Mulder and she could anticipate that now. Their work, their friendship and the sex would all be as fuelled by their yin and yang personalities.

It excited her to know he would push her to limits as she ground him in truths. There was nothing left lingering in the background between them from anger of stories untold or feelings not validated. She knew she had in him a confidant and a partner in every sense. Mulder was everything to her and she finally had the confirmation she was that for him.

They had laid enough out on the table, so to speak, and there was only the forward movement into ecstasy and release.

Scully felt her inner lips of her sex swell and she knew something immense was about to take over her body. A release that was rare for her on her own unless the tension between her and Mulder had been particularly rough to deal with.

Mulder’s hips began pumping faster and harder. “Come on…”

She wasn’t sure if he was urging her to come or himself to not but she wasn’t entirely worried about at the moment. She was almost there.

“Fuck, Scully, you feel so good,” he groaned as he slammed into her repeatedly.

She was practically bouncing off the bed from his force and she almost lost her grip on her own sex as he fucked her. Almost. She was getting closer with each thrust and she felt the edge of her fall into the deep ravine of gratification as tumbling reverence took over.

“Oh!” she cried out. “Oh god!”

As her hand worked quickly across her clit, she felt more swelling of her inner lips. Mulder held his cock inside, buried to the hilt, and his jaw went slack as she came in a long wave that had her thinking of combusting brain arteries and aneurysms. It was so much at once but she didn’t want to stop.

“Yeah…” he growled as he adjusted his hips and rocked against her harder to push against her cervix. “Fuuuuuuuck.”

“Mulder!” she cried out as the last pulse of her release washed over and she fell completely limp on the bed.

Her breath was coming out in shallow pants and while Mulder remained inside her, he leaned down closer to her face. She could feel his breath on her cheek and he put the backs of his fingers on her forehead like she had done so many times for him.

“Scully?”

Her eyes fluttered open. “Yeah?”

“What happened?” he asked.

“I didn’t pass out,” she assessed. “It was just a lot of stuff happening at once in a really good way.”

Mulder smiled and remained still inside her. “I was worried a little.”

She leaned up and kissed his cheek. “The overwhelming feeling of such intensity has been an occurrence few and far between.”

He pulled back and thrust once gently, causing her to whimper. “Hopefully not something you’ll have to say ever again.”

It had floated through her mind that he would want this to be a one-time occurrence and she felt her heart ache for his optimism.

“Did you want to come before we talk about our relationship status?” Scully asked with a tone she hardly recognized in herself.

It had been too long since she last had a man inside her. Most of her wanted to know where they were going but it seemed moot at this point. They were there and they had professed their love. She wasn’t interested in debating sleep-over nights at this point.

Mulder laughed. “Jesus Scully, I should get you liquored up more often.”

She smiled to herself. “Well…. You have a slightly large…”

Mulder made an expectant face at her, waiting for her to drop an expletive.

“Dilemma?” she guessed and Mulder’s mouth skewed into one of disappointment. “You were waiting for me to say cock?”

He laughed again. “I was hoping you’d say dick but that’s even better.”

They smiled at each other for a beat.

“We can talk after,” she repeated and clenched the muscles inside. Mulder groaned and closed his eyes. “I’m not going anywhere.”

He shook his head and he adjusted her on the bed so she was on her side. Being moved around by his capable hands was more than arousing and she let him maneuver her so his knees were on either side of her bottom leg. He bent her top leg at the knee so it was out at a ninety degree angle and adjusted himself inside her.

“You mean once we leave this bed you’re not going to change your mind about quitting?” he asked as he rocked against her backside.

Scully looked over her shoulder and up to him as he was above her. “Never.”

Mulder licked his bottom lip and she wondered if he was trying to decide what to do next but that wasn’t the usual expression he had when about to make a decision. He narrowed his eyes, he looked from left to right as his brain weighed the options and sometimes a small smirk would form at the corner of his mouth. This was something else.

Scully reminded herself they had yet to be in one of these situations before. Naked on a bed, their limbs intertwined while their bodies were joined at the most intimate of places.

He leaned down to her and kissed her softly as he rocked his pelvis against hers. He was about to overload her senses again - she could anticipate that much.

“Don’t move, Scully,” he whispered as his hips began quick, short thrusts against her.

The head of his cock was aligned against the front wall of her sex and she felt a rush of pleasure course through her. Mulder’s jaw was slack and she watched him as he lengthened the strokes and slammed in harder against her.

“You’re so fucking sexy like that,” he told her as his hips smacked against her ass. “So sexy.”

“Oh God!” she cried out as a wave of bliss washed over her. “Oh! My! God!”

Each word was punctuated with a thrust of his hips and Mulder groaned loudly above her as his eyes clenched shut.

“ _Fuck_!” he bellowed and she felt the heat of his seed fill her.

There was a slowing to his thrusts and she felt herself shudder as she came down from the tingling sensation of a small orgasm.

Mulder panted above her and kissed her shoulder before he carefully extracted his half-swollen member. He handed Scully a tissue from the box on her nightstand and she cleaned herself off as much as she could. She would need to visit the bathroom too and she gave him a look before leaving him in the bedroom to finish her post-sex ritual.

When she exited the bathroom without her robe on, Mulder was washing his hands at the sink and he smiled down at her naked form.

“I could get used to seeing that,” he leered and she fought a laugh but nudged him anyway as she dried her hands off. “I could. If you’d let me.”

Scully turned to him and he quickly took her face in his hands. “Nothing left hidden between us, Mulder?”

“Out on the table,” he promised and his mouth twitched as she put her hands on his hips. “All of it. Work, personal, the whole thing, Scully.”

“You know, Mulder… The last time you stood there holding my head, you made other grand declarations like this,” she reminded him. “If we-”

“If?” he cut her off. “You came three times and you’re _still_ saying if?”

“If we are serious-”

“What else would we be, if we weren’t serious, Scully?” he interrupted again.

His hands dropped and so did hers. They stood opposite each other, naked as jay birds but with her arms crossed in front of her torso and his hands on his hips. Put them at a macabre crime scene or in the basement office and they would appear as though they were arguing theories and not the abilities to carry out their relationship to fruition.

“I love you, dammit,” he blurted out. “What else is there?”

“You’re being awfully naive, Mulder,” she replied quietly.

He pulled her hands down from their crossed positions and he took her hands in his. “Naive or romantic as hell? What’s more of a valiant gesture than to rescue someone from the bottom of the world from an alien space ship?”

She shrugged. “What about work?”

“We keep pushing to get the X-Files back and when we do, nothing changes,” he promised.

She wanted to believe him.

“And if Diana-”

“I don’t want to beat a dead horse, Scully but I promise you, I feel _nothing_ ,” he vowed. “I trust you. You’ve stood by me. You’ve validated me. You’ve been the one person in my life that made me realize I might actually deserve being loved. What kind of a horse’s ass would I have to be to run from that? I know how I feel.”

Scully nodded and she adjusted her hands inside Mulder’s to intertwine her fingers with his. “Okay.”

“Okay?” he repeated. “Okay, Scully?”

She laughed. “Yeah, okay. Let’s do this.”

Mulder’s smile was adorable and hopeful. “Yeah? Because I love you.”

“Yes, you ass,” she laughed. She felt a blush creeping on her cheeks. “I love you too.”

“I know, it’s just so nice to hear instead of _oh, brother_ ,” he teased and her jaw dropped. “Didn’t think I remembered, did you?”

“No,” she laughed. “I honestly didn’t.”

Mulder pulled her toward him and wrapped her in a warm embrace. He kissed the top of her head and she realized she could quickly grow accustomed to that in non-life threatening situations.

“So now what?”

She looked up at him. “Sleep?”

Mulder made a face.

“Sex?” she guessed.

“Hot damn,” he said with a laugh. “It’s like you’re reading my mind.”

Scully pulled away from him and backed toward the bathroom. “Maybe a shower first?”

Mulder picked up the soap off the free samples from the hotel. “You know, Scully. I’m _really_ good at multi-tasking.”

 


End file.
